GYMNASTICS STARTS 2014 WITH NORCAL MEET AT HOME

OPENING PASS
• Sacramento State begins its 2014 season on Sunday, Jan. 5, at 2 p.m. when it hosts the NorCal Meet at the Hornets Nest. Along with the Hornets, the meet will include, No. 9 Stanford, No. 22 California, San José State and UC Davis.
• This year marks the third NorCal Meet and the first time that Sacramento State has served as host. The team placed third in 2012 at Stanford and was fourth last season at San José State. Cal will be making its first appearance in the meet.
• Sacramento State returns 19 of the 24 routines from last season with the only losses coming from graduated seniors Nicole Meiller (vault and bars) and Cayla Beutler (bars, beam and floor).

REGIONAL RETURNERS
The Hornets return a pair of NCAA Regional qualifiers in senior Kailey Hansen and junior Kalliah McCartney. Hansen has advanced to the NCAA postseason each of her three previous seasons with Sacramento State. Last year, she overcame an early season knee injury to earn the specialist position on beam. She also tied for the top spot on vault but lost out on the bid due to the second tie-breaker. During 2013, she had an RQS of 9.800 on beam and 9.795 on vault.

McCartney was dominant throughout the season as an all-arounder. She placed sixth at the Corvallis Regional after scoring 39.100. During the year, she set the school record with an RQS of 39.265 in the all-around. She finished first in the all-around 11 times in 14 meets and also claimed the top spot on beam and floor five times, vault four times and twice on bars. The Vancouver, Wash., native owns four of the top eight all-around scores in school history.

POWER IN NUMBERS
The 2014 senior class will be significantly larger than last season as six gymnasts will be entering their final season of competition. The class is comprised of Elideth Guerrero, Kailey Hansen, Kaila Kilwein, Maddie Montoya, Katie Osaki and Ashley Wooff who have all been contributors during the team. In fact, all six are scheduled to compete this weekend, including Hansen, Kilwein and Osaki in multiple events.

INJURY UPDATE
Sacramento State will head into the NorCal Meet in relatively good physical shape. Freshman Megan Kyle is the only gymnast who has been ruled out of competition due to injury. Kyle had Tommy John surgery and is expected to redshirt during 2014. Junior Kayla Wonderly and sophomore Cassie Benning are both coming off Tommy John procedures in the last year but are expected to fight for spots in the lineup. Also back is sophomore Jesse Williams who suffered an ankle injury early last season.